The present invention relates to self-contained combination fireplace-furnace systems adapted for installation in the living space of a building.
While existing types of fireplaces provide heat, their primary use in most cases is an esthetic one. The inability of a fireplace to heat the room in which they are located efficiently is well known. For example, heat is dissipated within the fireplace itself and is lost up the chimney. The result is an inefficient use of fuel.
A variety of approaches have been taken in an attempt to improve the heat transfer characteristics of fireplaces, including the use of fireplace structures as part of or as an auxiliary to separate forced air heating systems.
For example, in Mouat, U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,506, Andrews U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,391, and Wilkening U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,754, the structures surrounding the fire box of the fireplace are adapted to provide air circulation for heating the air and directing the air into the room in which the fireplace is located. A similar modification of a built-in fireplace is disclosed in the March, 1976 Popular Science Magazine, pages 111 and 153. Another type of such a fireplace is marketed by the Majestic Company of Huntington, Ind. under the trademark MAJESTITHERM.
Alternatively, other approaches have attempted to combine fireplaces with forced air furnace systems by using the fireplace in part to heat air within the forced air system, or by introducing air heated in the fireplace into the forced air system. Examples of such systems are disclosed in Stein U.S. Pat. No. 2,572,888 and in Glover U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,619.
Such systems are deficient and not totally satisfactory. They are either limited to attempted improvements in distribution of heat from the fireplace into the room in which the fireplace is located, or require a separate furnace forced air system for heating areas in the building other than the one in which the unit is located. The practicality of such combined systems is questionable.
Furthermore, attempts to interface a fireplace with an independent forced air system require the existence of both systems and limit the possible uses of such to structures which can be adapted to accommodate both. Many structures can not.